Free Ride

I feel this movie was a movie of two halves Interesting first half when Anna Paquin relocates with her two daughters and through Drea De Matteo she gets involved in criminal activity. Not sure what she was doing mind you, she was earning lots of money but not sure what for and why they were using her other than finding suitable boats. Second half she kinda changes personality and becomes more motherly and it dissolves into cheesy melodrama. Anna Paquin in all fairness looks great in that bikini and tiny denim shorts etc. Not sure if she was the correct casting choice. She has a strange mouth, I like the little gap in her teeth but her mouth shape is weird. Still she is very capable actress. Smoking to much though, not sure why her character had to be a chainsmoker. All in all , not to bad but not great. Nice reveal of the real life Christine at the end.

While not a perfect film I thought it was none the less very good. Great performances by all of the cast and really took me back to the 70's style wise. I liked the music as well but mostly I liked Anna Paquin. She plays a mom that is pretty strong and and loves her girls but knows she has to take risks to take care of them. There could have been a bit more character development and perhaps more interaction at school for the girls but keeping it from being too long won out in the end I believe. For a true story I think it deserves a watch and feel confident that it is at least worth a 7 out of 10. Few will be disappointed .... Cheers

It's 1977. Christina Willand (Anna Paquin) escapes her abusive partner taking her daughters MJ (Liana Liberato) and Shell (Ava Acres) from Barberton, Ohio to Sandy (Drea de Matteo) in Florida. Christina gets a job cleaning mansions. Sandy gets her involved dealing with Ray (Cam Gigandet) and the Bossman. They are soon transporting large amounts of drugs. The family is given a house to live in while the Bossman stores drugs in the barn.

I think this movie is set up for something better. Instead, the story just lays there without sustained drama. It's a bit random and disjointed. Christina as a character doesn't change enough to be compelling. This may be better off as a movie about MJ and her relationship with her mother. Her character changes much more from telling her little sister to come clean about stealing gum to dealing with her drug transporting mom to falling into troubled herself. She's traveling a more compelling journey. I also don't understand why they wouldn't dramatize the climatic crash with Sandy instead of the new character Rain. This is supposedly director/writer Shana Betz's real life as the character Shell and maybe she didn't fictionalize the story enough. She needs to rewrite this with an eye towards making a compelling story.

"We should have never left Ohio." Christina (Paquin) is a single mother looking to start a new and better life for her two daughters MJ (Liberato) and Shell. They move to Florida and meet up with Sandy who introduces Christina to the world of drug trafficking. What starts off as a way to make some quick money on the side for her kids soon spirals out of control and changes the lives of all involved. I will start by saying that this isn't an original idea but the fact that this one is based on a true story makes it seem fresh. The acting is very good in this and there are just enough different story lines going on to keep you interested and make the movie tense. The mom trying to avoid the law, the tension between the mom and the oldest daughter, and the love interest lines keep you watching and wondering what will happen next. We see Christina go from a great mom to an absentee mom fairly quickly and the same arc for MJ really made me like the movie more then I expected too. Overall, there really isn't much else to say about this, pretty cookie cutter and predictable but it is a true story so that fact alone makes it more interesting. I give it a B.

Watched this last night. I don't know why sandcrab gave it a zero. Maybe they were offended by the marijuana storylines. They said the movie glorified drug use. It was set in 77. I'm pretty sure that was going on back then. Especially the weed trade down in Florida. It was a basic movie supposedly based on actual events. The ending credits show some of the people involved. Were there plot holes? Sure, but to trash it because it glorified drugs, gtfoh.